Near spill, reservation wrestles with oil's impact

Saltwater leaks into this stream after running downhill, Thursday, July 10, 2014, near Mandaree, N.D. A pipeline leak on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation spilled 1 million gallons of saltwater, a byproduct of oil and gas production. Company officials say the leak likely started over the Fourth of July weekend. (AP Photo/Tyler Bell)
The Associated Press

Saltwater leaks into this stream after running downhill, Thursday, July 10, 2014, near Mandaree, N.D. A pipeline leak on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation spilled 1 million gallons of saltwater, a byproduct of oil and gas production. Company officials say the leak likely started over the Fourth of July weekend. (AP Photo/Tyler Bell)

In this July 10, 2014, photo, pelicans pass a containment boom on the edge of Bear Den Bay, close to the location of a saltwater pipeline spill near Mandaree, N.D. (AP Photo/Tyler Bell)The Associated Press

In this July 10, 2014, photo, pelicans pass a containment boom on the edge of Bear Den Bay, close to the location of a saltwater pipeline spill near Mandaree, N.D. (AP Photo/Tyler Bell)

A roadside sign encourages tribal members and visitors to Fort Berthold Indian Reservation to protect the environment in this July 11, 2014, in Mandaree, N.D. Mandaree a few miles away from the site of a pipeline that spewed 1 million gallons of saltwater, an oil production byproduct, into North Dakota's badlands. (AP Photo/Josh Wood)The Associated Press

A roadside sign encourages tribal members and visitors to Fort Berthold Indian Reservation to protect the environment in this July 11, 2014, in Mandaree, N.D. Mandaree a few miles away from the site of a pipeline that spewed 1 million gallons of saltwater, an oil production byproduct, into North Dakota's badlands. (AP Photo/Josh Wood)

In this July 11, 2014 photo, Ruth Anna Buffalo stands in a ravine that she would often travel to as a child in North Dakota's badlands near Mandaree, N.D. A nearby underground pipeline spewed 1 million gallons of saltwater into the badlands in early July. Buffalo compares the impact of oil and gas development on the land to the creation of a lake by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s that flooded her ancestors' homes. (AP Photo/Josh Wood)The Associated Press

In this July 11, 2014 photo, Ruth Anna Buffalo stands in a ravine that she would often travel to as a child in North Dakota's badlands near Mandaree, N.D. A nearby underground pipeline spewed 1 million gallons of saltwater into the badlands in early July. Buffalo compares the impact of oil and gas development on the land to the creation of a lake by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s that flooded her ancestors' homes. (AP Photo/Josh Wood)

In this July 11, 2014 photo, cars sit in unkempt grass in front of a water tower in Mandaree, N.D., on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. A nearby pipeline spewed 1 million gallons of saltwater into North Dakota's badlands in early July. For reservation residents, there is a difficult balance between the potential prosperity of oil and gas development and conserving a land regarded as sacred by cultural beliefs. (AP Photo/Josh Wood)The Associated Press

In this July 11, 2014 photo, cars sit in unkempt grass in front of a water tower in Mandaree, N.D., on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. A nearby pipeline spewed 1 million gallons of saltwater into North Dakota's badlands in early July. For reservation residents, there is a difficult balance between the potential prosperity of oil and gas development and conserving a land regarded as sacred by cultural beliefs. (AP Photo/Josh Wood)

This July 11, 2014 photo shows a house in Mandaree, N.D., on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. An underground pipeline several miles from Mandaree spewed 1 million gallons of saltwater, an oil production byproduct, into North Dakota's badlands in early July. For reservation residents, there is a difficult balance between the potential prosperity of oil and gas and the conservation of a land regarded as sacred by cultural beliefs. (AP Photo/Josh Wood)The Associated Press

This July 11, 2014 photo shows a house in Mandaree, N.D., on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. An underground pipeline several miles from Mandaree spewed 1 million gallons of saltwater, an oil production byproduct, into North Dakota's badlands in early July. For reservation residents, there is a difficult balance between the potential prosperity of oil and gas and the conservation of a land regarded as sacred by cultural beliefs. (AP Photo/Josh Wood)

MANDAREE, N.D. (AP) — Many Native Americans on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation are trying to manage the balance between the potential prosperity oil and gas development can bring and preserving a land their cultural and religious beliefs say is sacred.

That dilemma has been highlighted since a pipeline spewed 1 million gallons of saltwater — byproducts of oil and gas production — into the badlands this month near the reservation town of Mandaree.

Ruth Anna Buffalo compares the impact of oil and gas to the building of a dam that flooded her relatives' homes in the 1950s.

Leaders of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara nation say oil development has rescued the reservation from poverty. But prosperity is difficult to see in Mandaree, and resident Katherine Young Bear says there's still "huge, horrible" poverty.